1. Cook the rice and collard greens together, following the rice cooking instructions.

2. Make the soup by mixing in a pot: vegetable broth/water, peanut butter, tomato paste, sriracha sauce, ginger, garlic, and onion. Heat until boiling, then lower to a simmer. Add more or less broth/water until soup is a consistency you like.

3. Slice the potato and place in boiling water for 5-10 minutes, or until soft.

4. Serve by placing potatoes and rice-collard green mixture in a bowl, then topping with peanut soup. Sprinkle peanuts over the top (optional).

1. In a large pot, saute the mushrooms and chopped garlic in some olive oil until garlic is fragrant and soft.

2. Add all other ingredients to the pot. Start with 1 cup milk and 1 cup veggie stock. Add more if needed – pasta should be fully submerged so that it can boil.

3. Stir well, bring to a boil, then cover and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until pasta is done (about 15 mins).

4. OPTIONAL: If you’re anxious to dig in, you can eat it at this point and it’s delicious! Or you can take the extra step to bake it. Scoop pasta mixture into a baking pan, top with some extra cheese, and bake at 400 until the cheese on top is melted (about 7-10 mins).

2. Separate out about 1/3 of the sour cream mixture. This will be used later to top the enchiladas. In the remaining 2/3, mix in the cheese. This will be the enchilada filling.

3. Flash-fry the tortillas by heating the oil in a pan, then placing the tortilla in the oil for about 3 seconds, then flip it and fry the other side for about 3 seconds. Stack the flash-fried tortillas on a paper towel.

4. Put some of the cheese mixture into the middle of a tortilla and roll the tortilla around the filling. Place in a greased baking pan. Finish filling and rolling all tortillas.

5. If there is any remaining cheese mixture, top the enchiladas with it. Then top with the sour cream mixture that was set aside in step 2.

6. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

]]>http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/12/22/green-chile-and-cheese-enchiladas/feed/0Vegetable Ramen with Poached Egghttp://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/11/16/vegetable-ramen-with-poached-egg/
http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/11/16/vegetable-ramen-with-poached-egg/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 03:42:26 +0000http://www.powered-by-produce.com/?p=5946Several months ago we got backyard chickens! Only one of our ladies has started laying so far, but even just one egg a day is enough to where I’m already trying to come up with different ways of using them. This ramen was perfect with a poached egg!

4. Reduce heat to low. Carefully crack eggs into the pot. Cover the pot and poach the eggs for 3-4 minutes.

]]>http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/11/16/vegetable-ramen-with-poached-egg/feed/3Artichoke, Pesto, Tortellini Souphttp://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/10/22/artichoke-pesto-tortellini-soup/
http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/10/22/artichoke-pesto-tortellini-soup/#commentsThu, 23 Oct 2014 00:39:21 +0000http://www.powered-by-produce.com/?p=5937I’ve said before that one of my favorite combos is spinach, tomato, artichoke. I used that combo in this awesome tortellini soup. This soup is so great because it’s light, yet filling.

1. Boil a pot of water. (NOT the pot you’re going to use to make the soup in.) Once the water is boiling, drop in the roma tomatoes. Remove them once the skin has split open. If the skin does not split, take the tomato out, cut a small “X” on the end of it, then put it back into the water until the skin begins to peel away. Remove tomatoes from water and set aside to cool.

2. In the pot where you will make the soup, heat chopped onion, chopped garlic cloves, pesto, olive oil, and seasoning.

3. Once the onion is cooked and fragrant, add the vegetable broth and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add the tortellini and boil according to package directions (usually 7-9 mins).

4. While tortellini is boiling, chop the tomato and artichoke. Add the artichoke, tomato, and spinach to the pot and boil just for a minute or two. Turn off the heat. (You want the veggies to stay fresh!)

]]>http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/10/22/artichoke-pesto-tortellini-soup/feed/1Cheesy Zucchini and Squash Bakehttp://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/09/09/cheesy-zucchini-and-squash-bake/
http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/09/09/cheesy-zucchini-and-squash-bake/#commentsTue, 09 Sep 2014 06:59:40 +0000http://www.powered-by-produce.com/?p=5915This is the easiest thing to make and it’s so good!

1. Preheat the oven to 350. While oven is heating, chop the zucchini, squash, eggplant, and tomato.

2. In a baking pan, mix the chopped veggies with 1-2 tbs olive oil, some seasonings, and some mozzarella cheese. Stir it up well. Then top it all with a little more mozzarella cheese.

3. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is melted and veggies are cooked through.

]]>http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/09/09/cheesy-zucchini-and-squash-bake/feed/1Sweet Potato and Kale Empanadashttp://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/08/06/sweet-potato-and-kale-empanadas/
http://www.powered-by-produce.com/2014/08/06/sweet-potato-and-kale-empanadas/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 00:30:19 +0000http://www.powered-by-produce.com/?p=5899Kale and sweet potato is such a great combination! The bitterness of the kale and the sweetness of the sweet potato compliment each other perfectly. I also used this combo in these quesadillas.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the sweet potato. I used the microwave to speed it up (~5-7 mins in microwave, or ~1 hour in oven).

2. While sweet potato is baking, roll out the dough into thin sheets. Use a bowl to cut the dough into circles (a diameter of around 4-6 inches works well).

3. Chop the kale into small pieces (using clean scissors is great for this). Once the sweet potato is baked, cut it in half and scoop out the flesh. In a bowl, mix sweet potato flesh, chopped kale, parmesan, and ricotta.

4. Spoon sweet potato kale mixture on to a dough round. Top with a second dough round and press the edges closed with a fork. Cut a small slit in the top of the empanada to vent.

5. Place empanadas on parchment/wax paper, brush tops with some olive oil, and bake at 400 for about 10 minutes, or until the tops begin to brown.

You can also freeze these! Just place wax paper between each uncooked empanada before putting them into the freezer. Then you can take them out and heat them in the oven from frozen! They’ll need to cook a little longer than 10 minutes this way (~15-20 mins).

Every second, 300 living beings are slaughtered for food in the US. Americans consume a million animals per hour.

The average American meat eater is responsible for about 200 animal deaths per year. Over a 79 year lifetime, that’s 15,800 slaughtered animals per meat eater. That’s a really huge number. Think about it.

3. Stop wondering where vegans get their protein.

The way Americans talk about protein, you’d think protein deficiency was the number one health risk! Guess what? It’s not. In fact, it’s not even on the list of ailments doctors are worried about in any country where basic caloric needs are being met. You’d have to be suffering from starvation (or be on a really terrible crash diet) to acquire a protein deficiency.

The official government-recommended daily amount of protein is 46 grams for women and 56 grams for men. The average American consumes twice this amount daily, which actually puts most Americans at risk for diseases caused by over-consumption of protein. Dr. Alona Pulde & Dr. Matthew Lederman who speak in the documentary Forks Over Knives said, “We’ve never treated a single patient with protein deficiency; yet the majority of patients we see are suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses directly resulting from trying to get enough protein.”

Nearly all unrefined foods contain protein (even fruit) and vegans have no trouble acquiring the recommended daily amount. This website shows a sample vegan menu and how easy it is to get daily protein on a vegan diet.

4. Give a damn about our planet.

Meat is one of the worst things we’re doing to this planet. The livestock industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire world’s transportation industry combined! Researchers at the University of Chicago found that going vegan is more effective in countering climate change than switching from a standard American car to a Toyota Prius.

Compared with buying a Hybrid vehicle, or buying Energy Star appliances, or installing insulation in your house to reduce heating leakage, or making a tedious commute on the bus or bike every day, or basically any other green thing you could possibly do, eating pasta on a night when you’d otherwise have made fajitas is pretty much the easiest, and it could have the largest impact if you did it just once a week! Given that eggplant parmesan, bean burritos, and vegetable stir-fry are all delicious, this is not the world’s most onerous commitment. For the sake of the planet, don’t ignore the impact of what’s on your plate.

5. Stop telling yourself that there’s a difference between the animals in your home and the animals on your plate.

We balk at the thought of eating dogs, cats, or horses. But why is it ok to eat pigs, chickens, and cows?

Your dog or cat is no different than a pig or cow or chicken in terms of their intelligence, their ability to bond, and their emotional capability. All animals have the capacity to feel pain, suffering, and fear. Slaughtering pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, goats, fish, or any animal, is no different than slaughtering dogs or cats. It’s just not.